Andy Warhol exhibit won't include Mao in China

The Associated Press

Posted:
04/19/2013 07:36:03 AM MDT

Updated:
04/19/2013 11:05:11 AM MDT

PITTSBURGH—But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't going to make it with anyone, anyhow.

Officials at Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum apparently agree with The Beatles, saying silkscreens of the iconic Chinese communist leader won't be on display when a traveling exhibit of Warhol's works opens in Shanghai on April 28.

"We always knew the Maos would be up for question based on the political climate," museum director Eric Shiner told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ( http://bit.ly/11qNuqU) for a story Friday. "I didn't want politics to enter the equation such that we were putting the entire exhibition in jeopardy because we want to share Warhol's work with people in China."

Shiner denied that the decision to nix the Mao Zedong images amounted to "censorship," despite reports in the New York Times and other outlets that China's Ministry of Culture objected to the images. Shiner said he made the decision not to include the images, not Chinese officials.

Similar silkscreens, including those of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, will be among 300 items that also include paintings, photos, drawings, installations and sculptures in the largest display of Warhol's work in Asia, and the first Warhol exhibit to visit China.

Shiner told the newspaper that five Mao silkscreens were shown when the exhibit was in Hong Kong, and four will be displayed in Tokyo when the exhibit moves there next year.

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The Maos weren't shown in Singapore because that country prohibits art displaying political figures, Shiner said.

BNY Mellon is financially supporting the tour, which drew 40,000 people a month when it first opened in Singapore from March to October, according to BNY Mellon spokesman Ronald Gruendl. The objects drew another 100,000 spectators while on display in Hong Kong from Dec. 31 through March, Gruendl said.

He would not comment on the decision to exclude the Mao images in China.